Scanning the ingredients on my $50 skin cream recently, I was struck by two things: the printing was so tiny, I needed a magnifying glass, and the list of chemicals was so long it required a better grade than I got in high school chemistry to decipher.

Touted as containing the "natural extracts" of some rare but undoubtedly worthy plant, the stuff was laden with an A-to-Z compendium of unpronounceable compounds.

What were they?

An hour of investigation later, I had answers -- and more than a few questions. If propylene glycol, used in everything from cosmetics and toothpaste to paintballs, causes a reaction in four per cent of the population and may be linked to birth defects, why was I putting it on my face? Ditto parabens and DMDM hydantoin, both of which are preservatives, the latter an anti-microbial formaldehyde slow-releaser.

While various authorities have deemed these ingredients and other chemicals safe for human consumption, in Canada's capital they're not buying it.

What they are buying are internationally recognized, all-natural, organic beauty products, designed and manufactured locally by in-their-own-backyard companies.

From biochemist Karen Clark, who developed her organic Green Beaver line (greenbeaver.com) after watching her baby son drink bath bubbles, to former fashion writer Melissa Shabinsky's edgy Revolution Organics (revolution-organics.com), it appears that Ottawa is thinking globally and acting locally. "The strongest markets for organics are definitely Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Our sales just keep growing, despite the recession," says Lisa Schmidt, owner of LilouOrganics.com, an online organic skin care company that plans to open a shop front this August. "The market in Ottawa is very strong." In fact, Ottawa's sleepy reputation belies its stronger identity as an educated, plugged-in community with "a really strong fashion, organic and entrepreneurial" sensibility, says Jodi Fedor, CEO and founder of Exuberance Beauty (exuberancebeauty.com). This small but expertly run Ottawa-based luxury organic skin care company successfully launched last year at New York's chic Henri Bendel stores, was asked to the Daytime Emmy and L. A. Fashion Week gifting rooms, and is poised to announce its presence at The Bay in July. "Ottawa is an educated city, so it's not surprising that people here make educated choices," adds Fedor, 32, who originally developed the products to treat her own sensitive skin.

"They're aware of what is affecting their health and they're aware of the importance of personal choices. People in Ottawa are political -- they know that small decisions can be powerful."

Those extra smarts are also keeping local beauty entrepreneurs on their toes, adds Shabinsky, who bemoans widespread green-washing, or labelling products organic based on the product containing as little as one natural ingredient.

Green consumers -- or Gen-E as she calls them -- "are educated, conscious and won't settle for just mediocre performance. They're growing up with organic and natural products as the standard. Overall, consumers are really calling out the faux-ganic brands," she adds. "They're questioning what they're putting on their faces and reading more labels."

And it's a good thing they do. Despite the efforts of some organizations like the USDA Organic and Europe's Ecocert to regulate green-eco-organic labelling, "certification doesn't necessarily mean anything," says Schmidt, who chooses which products she offers customers based on her own high standards.

"Anyone can say organic or natural on the bottle. I carry brands like Pangaea that will never get certification because they believe the benchmarks will actually bring down their standards."

Such transparency and search for simple skin care solutions is also what's driving newcomer Cyber-Derm ( cyberderm-inc.com),a non-organic line co-developed by Ottawa dermatologist Dr. Sharyn Laughlin. The newly launched line -- day and night creams as well as an exfoliant --came about after Laughlin grew disheartened by the chemicals and additives in conventional products. Unable to offer patients solutions she believed in, she formed CyberDerm to devise formulations based on the ancient Indian medicine system, Ayurveda, which have combined curcumin from turmeric and antioxidants with a surprisingly short ingredient list.

"You look at products with 40 or 60 ingredients and you think, 'There's no way you need that many,' " says executive director Sara Dudley.

"You don't need six skin-conditioning agents. As consumers, though, we're all culpable because we demand creams that are thick, shimmer and smell nice. But you have to wonder, is it necessary?"

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